The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to resolve their financial and roster crunch this offseason. The latest casualty is sharpshooting guard Isaiah Joe, who is headed to the Detroit Pistons in exchange for two second-round picks, ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Friday.
Another move the Portland Trail Blazers and GM Joe Cronin should've been all over.
Portland first missed out on a buy-low opportunity to land Aaron Wiggins, who is set for a potential breakout season in an increased role with the Atlanta Hawks. Wiggins may have more upside than Joe, but it's the latter who would've been the better fit in Portland, given his reliable floor spacing.
Isaiah Joe was the ideal buy-low solution to Blazers' shooting woes
In his past four seasons with the Thunder, Joe has connected on 41.5 percent from deep. These are the type of rare buy-low opportunities Portland needs to win on the margins to help catch up in the Western Conference.
Joe may be on a team-friendly contract, but Oklahoma City successfully reduced its luxury tax penalty by $76 million. Between the Joe and Wiggins trades, that's a total of $140 million. While they may have sold low on these deals, it's not like GM Sam Presti is hurting for draft picks.
With the unprecedented depth he's acquired, Joe and Wiggins were expendable. They may have been valuable pieces in the regular season, but were afterthoughts come playoff time, especially with Jared McCain now in the picture.
Though these financially motivated deals make perfect sense for OKC, it doesn't change the fact that these players can be incredibly valuable elsewhere. You know, on normal rosters.
Joe, in particular, would've immediately helped address Portland's top offseason priority to add more shooting. The Blazers made a similar move on the margins, acquiring Vit Krejci from the Hawks at the deadline. But unfortunately, his shooting has yet to translate to Portland. Adding Joe would've been everything Portland was initially hoping to get with Krejci.
He also would've provided guard depth, giving Cronin more flexibility in navigating this uncertain offseason. Portland has expressed interest in just about every star trade candidate to date, and may have to sacrifice Scoot Henderson or Shaedon Sharpe to make that a reality.
The Blazers were expected to be buyers this offseason, but have been surprisingly quiet so far. As new head coach Micah Nori mentioned at his introductory press conference, Damian Lillard's return should drastically help Portland's shooting woes. But to rely on a 35-year-old coming off an Achilles tear is not a sustainable solution to this problem that lies in Portland's building blocks.
Joe was the trade they needed to make to add to this young core, but unfortunately, the Blazers were nowhere to be found.
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